Episode 176: What do you do when life hits hard?

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Today Counts Show Episode 176

Preview

Jim Piper: I was reminded again of the devastation of the fall. That’s a theological term for when mankind took a right turn away from the path that God had clearly laid out for us. Just the hate. If you’ve been somewhat in touch with the happenings, then you’re probably very much aware. So, it’s a somber way to look back at this past week. But how can I go on into pragmatics without talking about—

Appreciation of our Supporters

Winston Harris: Hey, before we jump into the podcast, we want to thank all our donors and supporters who make the Today Counts Show possible. It’s through your generosity that we’re able to shape leaders through this content and this podcast. And be sure to like, subscribe, and follow wherever you find yourself coming across this content.

All right, let’s get to the podcast.

Vision for Life and Leadership

Jim Piper: Hello everybody. My name is Jim Piper. I am the host of the Today Counts Show. My vision for this podcast is to discuss everything important about life and leadership. It does come from a Christian worldview and informed theology, hopefully an informed psychology, as well as leadership principles for business, ministry, and nonprofit work. But basically, and at the core, at the center, I guess you could say, it’s really a podcast about self-leadership.

Three Channels, One Mission

Now we have three channels on the same podcast. On this same URL, you will find a list of episodes. It’s called the Genesis Project, and that is me and a few of my friends reading through the book of Genesis and collaborating together on what meaning it has for us today and how to apply it.

The second is a channel of long-form interviews where we are generally discussing leadership, where we’ll have special guests on and look at their interests, the work that they’re doing, and see what we can glean from those.

Today I introduce a third channel, a third avenue. This one I’m going to call basically what this podcast is about: life and leadership, or This Week in Life and Leadership. That implies that I’ll be recording this short episode on a weekly basis. I don’t think that will be true. It might be true, but I kind of doubt it. But I have a passion to share this with you because it has a really simple format.

One, it’s a solo podcast. It’s just me talking to you. Secondly, what I’m doing is reviewing the past week or so of life in general and in leadership in general, looking at what I’ve observed, what I’m learning, what I could do better, maybe how you might be able to learn from that too, with hopefully solid coaching wisdom for all of us to practice.

Learning from the Hill Country Tragedies and Social Media Reactions

So, without further ado, the events recently that have happened in what I’ll call South Central Texas—what we all who live here call the Hill Country. As you are surely aware, we had a good amount of rain, but we had flash floods and many lives were lost. At the time of this recording, we still don’t know the full impact of what has happened.

What has surprised me this week—and I don’t know why I say surprise—I think because I tend to lead optimistically, lean optimistically in the way that I view people and the way that I view lives and how we handle life. But as I was on one of my walk-slash-runs—it really looks like somebody’s been shot that’s trying to get to safety—I try to do it as often as I can, four or five days a week, sometimes six days a week.

The Importance of Self-Awareness and Controlling the Tongue

I was listening to some of the things on social media, and it was really disappointing how clearly the human condition is so broken. Using this event to create whatever political, religious, or personal platform to spew all kinds of stuff.

Now, I recognize that a lot of it comes from emotion. A lot of it comes from our wounds and why we say things that are unbecoming, why we use various social media platforms to do that. But it constantly reminded me of how much the Bible talks about the tongue and controlling the tongue.

Sometimes we label certain people as emotional and some people as not emotional. That’s a fallacy. That’s a joke. Every human being is emotional. Being self-aware, understanding what our triggers are and why we would—without having all the information—say things that are just so unbecoming and destructive.

Devastation of the Fall and Human Brokenness

I just have to be honest with you. It was a real downer for me over that weekend and even in the beginning of this new week. I was reminded again of the devastation of the fall. That’s a theological term for when mankind took a right turn away from the path that God had clearly laid out for us, which of course we learn about in the Genesis Project on this podcast.

And of course, by saying this, it has a way of elevating myself, doesn’t it? So, let’s get rid of that right now. I know that my human condition is broken as well. I’m not simply pointing my finger at humanity and saying you’re broken. I’m saying we’re broken. That’s what I’m saying.

So, it’s a somber way to look back at this past week. But how can I go on into pragmatics without talking about what really matters—the heart of things?

So I was pretty bummed out about that. And to be frank, I still kind of am bummed out. Just the hate and this— I don’t want to go into that. If you’ve been somewhat in touch with the happenings, then you’re probably very much aware of how ignorant and insensitive we as humans can be.

The Discipline of Evaluation and Planning for a Productive Week

Jim Piper: All right, let’s change channels to the second topic. I wanted to talk about the tragedies and more so what it has revealed, unfortunately. It’s also revealed a lot of good things with folks, but just the noise has been so negative.

The second thing I want to talk about is really a discipline that I try to encourage all of those who are part of the Lead Today Community, which is to look back, to evaluate, so that you can pre-plan and make pre-decisions for the following week. As you do that on a regular basis, you will find it’ll help you live with more joy, live with more peace, live with more productivity, to be more successful in what you’re trying to do, as well as keeping yourself healthy.

Learning from a Busy Calendar

Looking at my calendar last week, this is what it taught me. Last week, I had 17 scheduled appointments. I guess I would ask you, how many appointments did you have last week? Now, granted, I couldn’t answer that off the top of my head, but that’s why I went back and looked at my calendar. I mean, 17 appointments for some people might be a light week. It might be a really heavy week. It’s moderately heavy for me.

So I had 17 scheduled appointments ranging from coaching and speaking to time with family and friends. That did not include the five blocks that I carved out for exercise, reading, and prayer. Looking back, the pace was full, but it wasn’t frantic. It was productive. It was not overwhelming.

The Value of Pre-Decisions and Self-Awareness

Why? Well, it’s because that week, last week, I had planned in detail in the previous two weeks leading up to that week. I planned to evaluate what I’m learning about my time. For example, I tend to lean a little bit more introverted. So when I am heavy in appointments with people, I know that on the other side of those appointments, I need to be involved in emotionally filling activities, which for me is doing something with my hands, watching an inspiring movie, exercise, reading, laughing—those kinds of things.

So anyway, I took the time to evaluate, to plan, and to protect margin. Margin is so important to create in your time. Let me just ask you, when you work on your calendar for next week, are you actually penciling in margin? Or are you just hoping to have margin, have space? I would encourage you to make sure that you are actually blocking margin for your week.

Coaching Insight from a Week Well Done

This week, what I’d like to do is some encouraging and a coaching insight for you. Being that I shared all the stuff that has happened in Texas and then we just took a quick look at my calendar—and though I did not pull a lot of learning out of my calendar this week, it’s because this week was a good week. I did it pretty well.

Now, on this podcast, you will hear me sometimes say, “Here’s what I did wrong here. Here’s what I did wrong here.” So hopefully you’ll stay in tune with this particular avenue of the Today Counts Show.

Coaching Insight: Living at a Different Pace in a World Full of Anxiety

The third thing I want to do is share a coaching insight for you. We live in a world pregnant with anxiety, anger, fear, stress, and brokenness. I had already commented on that before. If you try to keep up with it, if you try to fix all of that, it will own you.

If you’ve listened to this podcast long enough or you’ve been a part of the Lead Today Community long enough, we call that Quadrant One. Just everything is important and everything is urgent. That will burn you out. That will cause you to create all kinds of bad habits to cope, and it will send you down a path that is just so unhealthy in so many different ways.

Slowing Down to Plan and Protect Margin

So your goal shouldn’t be to stay on top of everything, to stay up to date with everything. Instead, aim to live and work at a different pace. Let me say it a different way: think of it as a different time zone.

What I like about living in the Central Time Zone is for my friends and clients that I work with on a weekly basis who are in Pacific Time, I get a two-hour head start. I get a two-hour head start as if I can do what I need to do and then be in a posture of waiting for them. That’s the idea that I’m trying to share here.

So, how do you do that though? First, I’ve already mentioned it several times—step back and evaluate. When I take the time to evaluate last week in preparation for next week, it slows me down. It slows me down on purpose. Most of us need to slow down.

Planning with Margin and Calm Intention

Then what I do, as I mentioned earlier, I plan my week with margin in mind. You know that planning matters, but you also know that plans get interrupted. That’s life. That’s how it works. But those interruptions should never cause you to stop planning. Because the more you plan and execute and evaluate, the more you’ll learn so that less and less of those interruptions happen to you and to your calendar.

Finally, move forward with calm intention. In other words, you’ve got the week planned out. You’ve already made decisions—predetermined decisions.

The “Slow is Smooth and Smooth is Fast” Principle Applied to Life

You know what this all reminds me of? It reminds me of a golfing principle that was shared with me. It’s pretty popular. I think it goes like this: Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.

Now, you may or may not play golf. When I was growing up, I didn’t play golf. I played baseball and I wrestled along with some other sports, but I never played golf. When they finally put a golf club in my hand, I was a banker at the time, a business banker. It was kind of normal to have client relationships where you would spend time out on the golf course.

I never took a lesson. I gripped that golf club like a baseball bat. The wrestler in me just thought basic common sense—the harder you swing, the further the ball will go. But I found that that’s not exactly true. It’s kind of true, but it’s not true.

Building a Life of Smooth and Intentional Rhythm

They do test your swing speed, but it’s how you get to that speed that makes all the difference. When you’re trying to develop a golf swing, you go slow. You really go slow. As you go slow, you create mental patterns. You create a habit of that swing—a good habit. Then, as you do that, your swing becomes smoother and smoother, and your speed continues to get faster.

That can be applied to our lives in self-leadership.

When I think about what I’m sharing with you and how to wrap this week up—move forward with calm intention. That smooth becomes fast in the ways that matter most. In other words, when you evaluate, when you plan, when you execute, when you evaluate, when you plan, when you execute—that’s what you’re doing. You’re slowing down on purpose. You’re learning things and therefore getting things out more smoothly. The more you do that, the faster and the more you will get done. And you’ll do it in the manners, in the subjects, and in the ways that are most important.

Outro

Winston Harris: Hey, thank you so much for joining us on the Today Counts Show. We’ve got so much more planned for you. So stay tuned and stay connected on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and subscribe on YouTube. And remember—Today Counts.
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